This photo of H5 at Hillwood
Strawberry Farm is kindly provided by Stuart Dix.

This 4-8-2 freight locomotive was built by
Vulcan
Foundry of Lancashire in 1951 as their builder's number 5953, being the
fifth of eight locomotives of this type which became the Tasmanian Government Railways'
H-class. This design was a repeat of the "248 class" locomotives previously
constructed by Vulcan Foundry for the Gold Coast Railway of western Africa.
a

Both
the Tasmanian Government Railways M & H-class locomotives were of modern design,
featuring roller bearings on all axles and throughout the motion, and were the
only Australian classes to be completely fitted-out with roller bearings.
These locos also had SCOA-P wheels, like the Victorian Railways' R & J classes
and the Queensland Railway's BB18-1/4 class. c

The
H-class originally wore emerald green livery, but four members (H2, H3, H5 & H6) were later
painted in the TGR's striking Post Office Red passenger livery. b

The Tasmanian Government Railways were
taken over by Australian National Railways in 1978, which appears to have
prompted a cleanup of redundant railway assets. At this time H2,
H3, H4, H5 and H8 were in storage at
Launceston and quickly came up for acquisition. Whilst H2 and H5 were purchased
for preservation,
unfortunately H3, H4 and much of H8 were scrapped in early 1979. a

H5
was purchased privately and placed on display at the Hillwood Strawberry
Farm, a tourist attraction in the Launceston area. Here it stayed
for the next 28 years until 2007, by which stage it was apparently no longer
wanted at Hillwood. Fortunately the Derwent Valley Railway stepped in and
members quickly raised the funds to purchase H5 and transport it to their New
Norfolk base, where it arrived on 15 December 2007 and remains in safe storage.